Comic Vine Review

Avengers Assemble #18 - Infinity Part 1 of 2 Review

The Builders are here. The time for Little League is over; Spider-Woman & Co. need to ASSEMBLE.

The Good

Tying in with INFINITY, this issue of AVENGERS ASSEMBLE thrusts us immediately into space, and immediately into a war zone. Spider-Woman takes center stage, and we learn a little bit about her inner battles while she and the rest of the Avengers take on the mysterious and daunting Builders.

Kelly Sue DeConnick has a consistent and uncanny ability to find a character's unique voice and have it ring true through a variety of situations, superheroic and otherwise. Her version of Jessica Drew is no exception, and I'm beginning to look forward to seeing more Spider-Woman, wherever she crops up in the latest Marvel slate. She's an Avenger, and she might be immune to a lot of things, but she's not immune to feelings. I'm hoping -- for her sake -- that Jessica is able to push past the self-doubt and depressive thinking, and it's because I've connected with the character enough that she makes me want to care.

Not only is there a fantastic inversion when Jessica's life is saved by a Skrull, but DeConnick sticks the landing by having it be a severely awkward moment for her to process, and compounding that awkwardness with some real talk from Black Widow. That voice thing? Nailed. Jessica should feel weird about a Skrull bailing her out, and she did need a little bit of tough love to jar her out of that spiral of negative thinking.

Spider-Woman's point-of-view is also a very interesting lens by which to view a teaser towards the fates of Clint and Carol. I'm sure we'll learn about what happened with their ship in another issue (either of this title or another INFINITY tie-in), but the vantage point of a third party who is selfishly not thinking about them makes there whereabouts that much more interesting. It's a great technique for building a sense of connectedness within the event; we're reminded that things are happening to other characters, but not distracted from the book we're in.

The Bad

I have no idea what's going on with Spider-Woman's spacesuit, but parts of it appear to be missing. It's unclear why her arms would need to be covered, while a central, more critical area (like her torso) wouldn't, especially in a combat situation. Equally mysterious: why Cap's helmet is similarly incomplete. It's hard to tell if these are conscious design decisions, or inking/coloring mis-steps.

The Verdict

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE delivers a little bit of what you'd expect and a little bit of a surprise. The Avengers are, indeed, assembling, this time with some reluctant allies from across the galaxy, to fight a common, powerful enemy. On the unexpected side: the characters who end up being closest to Spider-Woman, and the ones who end up feeling more distant. The issue works, both as a standalone and as a part of INFINITY, and is a nice (albeit not uplifting) peek into Jessica's experience as a person and as an Avenger.

I refuse to buy this book because Marvel refused to admit that it was out of continuity when it started. Now I'm supposed to just accept that this is another Avengers family book?

So, lets go back...Avengers just came out in the movies and it was awesome. Marvel knew they needed an Avengers team comic that mimic'ed the movie version with the same 6 characters. So we get Avengers Assemble which started out as an out of continuity Avengers book created for people who were interested in reading comics but too afraid of the massive continuity. A comic created wherein if you saw the movie you could understand the comic.

So...the movie introduced Thanos at the end, the comic continues that with Thanos attacking the Avengers. With Thanos "dead" in the normal universe due to his sealing in the cancerverse with Nova Prime and Star Lord how could this comic possibly be in continuity with the rest of 616 Marvel?!

The cashing in on the movie isn't what bothers me, it's Marvel refusing to admit that Avengers Assemble is what it is. It's a comic that shouldn't be affecting the other Avengers titles because it started out in some alternate time line that didn't care about what was happening around it.

Avengers Assemble is that stinky kid in your grade school class that your group of friends all hates but manages to enter into your friends group merely by standing near them over the course of 4-6 years into high school. He's that friend that by your Junior year in high school you question,"how the hell are you in our friend group?! didn't we all hate you in grade school?!" and subsequently he's the 1st person you stop talking to when going to college...

Sorry for the rant about this but I truly see Avengers Assemble as a symbol of everything that is currently wrong with Marvel in terms of continuity. Marvel is all about wasted potential recently,and more importantly their all about continuity errors.

We are in everyway in a resurgence of 1990s Marvel...and ever comic reader should be afraid of that...

I refuse to buy this book because Marvel refused to admit that it was out of continuity when it started. Now I'm supposed to just accept that this is another Avengers family book?

So, lets go back...Avengers just came out in the movies and it was awesome. Marvel knew they needed an Avengers team comic that mimic'ed the movie version with the same 6 characters. So we get Avengers Assemble which started out as an out of continuity Avengers book created for people who were interested in reading comics but too afraid of the massive continuity. A comic created wherein if you saw the movie you could understand the comic.

So...the movie introduced Thanos at the end, the comic continues that with Thanos attacking the Avengers. With Thanos "dead" in the normal universe due to his sealing in the cancerverse with Nova Prime and Star Lord how could this comic possibly be in continuity with the rest of 616 Marvel?!

The cashing in on the movie isn't what bothers me, it's Marvel refusing to admit that Avengers Assemble is what it is. It's a comic that shouldn't be affecting the other Avengers titles because it started out in some alternate time line that didn't care about what was happening around it.

Avengers Assemble is that stinky kid in your grade school class that your group of friends all hates but manages to enter into your friends group merely by standing near them over the course of 4-6 years into high school. He's that friend that by your Junior year in high school you question,"how the hell are you in our friend group?! didn't we all hate you in grade school?!" and subsequently he's the 1st person you stop talking to when going to college...

Sorry for the rant about this but I truly see Avengers Assemble as a symbol of everything that is currently wrong with Marvel in terms of continuity. Marvel is all about wasted potential recently,and more importantly their all about continuity errors.

We are in everyway in a resurgence of 1990s Marvel...and ever comic reader should be afraid of that...

In truth we are in a resurgence of the 1990's in general. Look, DC is bring more and more wildstorm, Image is bringing back Cyber Force and other Top Cow comics, Valiant is back, and Marvel cannot help but have 100000 books coming out a week. Next thing you know, Wizard will make their comeback.

Great issue. Refreshing to get inside Jessica's head and see the action from her POV

I liked this about it too but the spacesuit thing REALLY bugged me..

I read Avengers 18 first and it annoyed me but we didn't see them go out into space so I thought it might close up around them or something. Then when I got to AA I just couldn't help hoping the whole issue that it would get addressed. Can't help but think it was a just cheap way for them to show which person is which :\

"Redacted Spoilers". No sarcasm, that's an awesome idea. I'm not sure if it's original but this is the first time and place I've seen it and it's a darn great idea. If it is original, trademark it or something. haha.